It seems obvious to me that colors came before color vision. Natural selection constrains diversity along the axes that it selects for, while genetic mutations supply diversity along all axes simultaneously. The net result would, intuitively for me, be that nature must have had the colors before anyone could see them, since there was no reason to constrain having colors.
We'll see if that ends up being anywhere close to correct.
It seems obvious to me that colors came before color vision. Natural selection constrains diversity along the axes that it selects for, while genetic mutations supply diversity along all axes simultaneously. The net result would, intuitively for me, be that nature must have had the colors before anyone could see them, since there was no reason to constrain having colors.
We'll see if that ends up being anywhere close to correct.